Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, May 5, 1998

Governor Pete Wilson presented more than 725,000 signatures yesterday to qualify for the November ballot an initiative that would secure permanent funding for class-size reduction.

But some school officials are already lining up against it, saying the effort appears to be a ploy by Wilson to mask less popular provisions that are also included in the initiative.

The state pays schools about $800 per student for class-size reduction in kindergarten through third grade. There is no law requiring the Legislature to continue that commitment, but Jean Quan, chairwoman of the Oakland Unified School District board, does not believe that funding for the program is in question.

Returning from a delegate assembly of the California School Board Association in Sacramento, where sentiment ran against the governor's initiative, she said that if Wilson had really wanted to make a difference, he should have supported an increase in funding to pay for the classrooms that are needed to accommodate smaller classes.

"There's nothing in here to really address the other needs of class-size reduction," she said.

But Mitch Zak, a spokesman for the initiative effort, said the class- size reduction program could be in jeopardy if political winds shift.

"Until you can find a way to institutionalize the governor's class-size reduction, who is to say what happens next year if there is a different governor or if there are different pressure points on the Legislature?" he said.

Wilson's "Permanent Class-Size Reduction and Educational Opportunities Act" would also require parent-majority school site governing councils, mandate subject matter competency testing for new teachers, establish a chief inspector of the public schools and expand the state's zero-tolerance drug policy to include expulsion of students in possession of illegal drugs on campus.

Quan said the new state chief would just be more unnecessary bureaucracy and that the other plans do not consider local issues and restrictions.

For instance, she said, districts may prefer to help students overcome drug problems rather than kick them out of school.

Jean Carroll, president of the teachers' union in the Mount Diablo Unified School District, agreed that it would take away the flexibility sometimes needed at the local level.

"Mount Diablo would love to hire teachers with math credentials or science credentials, but we can't find them," she said. "I don't know why he wants to make it a law when we all agree and can't do it."

After county elections officials check the signatures, the secretary of state's office can certify that backers of the measure have the 433,269 valid signatures required to place the measure on the ballot.